THEME
The theme of the Joint Military Operations (JMO) Joint Professional Military Education
(JPME) curriculum is joint warfighting at the theater-strategic and operational
levels of war. The JMO course prepares future military and civilian leaders for
high-level policy, command, and staff positions requiring joint planning expertise
and joint warfighting skills. It emphasizes the theory and practice of operational
art as it relates to maritime and joint forces. The JMO student will learn to apply
operational art, the Joint Operation Planning Process (JOPP) and critical thinking
skills in a seminar environment to creatively employ joint forces to achieve national,
theater-strategic, and operational objectives. In addition, extensive faculty and
student interaction in seminar fosters professional joint attitudes and perspectives
essential to successful military operations.
CONCEPT
The Joint Military Operations course is an in-depth study of the theater-strategic
and operational levels of war across the range of military operations. This course
builds upon the learning objectives of Joint Professional Military Education as
defined in the Joint Staff Officer Professional Military Education Policy (OPMEP),
and upon the Naval War College’s National Security and Decision Making (NSDM) and
Strategy and Policy (S&P) curricula. Whereas NSDM and S&P emphasize national
military strategy development, as well as the nation’s imperative for matching policy
to strategic goals, the JMO course prepares students for the operational arena by
emphasizing operational planning and joint force application to achieve military
objectives. It examines joint operations from the standpoint of the combatant commander
(CCDR) and Joint Task Force (JTF) commander with a particular emphasis on maritime
operations. It further develops joint attitudes and perspectives and increases understanding
of service cultures. By studying an array of case studies, the JMO student is challenged
with four enduring questions from the perspective of a joint force commander and
his staff:
- What conditions are required to achieve the objectives? (Ends)
- What sequence of actions is most likely to create those conditions? (Ways)
- What resources are required to accomplish that sequence of actions? (Means)
- What is the likely cost or risk in performing that sequence of actions?
The ability of the commander and his staff to answer these questions and to balance
their outcomes is a foundation of operational art.
OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of the Joint Military Operations course of study, the student shall
be:
- Proficient in applying operational art to joint warfighting and the joint planning
processes
- Competent in planning campaigns and operations that integrate and leverage military
& non-military capabilities
- Informed and effective joint & maritime advocates at JFC/Combatant CDR level; strategically-minded
leaders capable of critical thinking
- Skilled in aligning and maximizing capabilities across components, services, agencies,
and international forces
- Imbued with a joint perspective; fluent in joint concepts, doctrine, systems, languages
and processes.
METHODOLOGY
The Joint Military Operations course emphasizes the use of the Military Planning
Process to carefully evaluate assigned tasks and produce effective courses of action
at the operational level of war that incorporate all aspects of national power.
Over the course of the semester, students are provided materials that allow them
to consider joint capabilities and doctrine within the theoretical construct of
operational art. Once armed with these concepts, the student is well equipped to
examine historical and real world case studies as a military professional and propose
clear and creative solutions to the most challenging and ambiguous problems. The
course curriculum is presented to the student through a range of lectures, seminars,
and student-led projects.
The majority of the student’s learning is conducted in seminar. The fifteen-person
seminar is comprised of members of the U.S. and international armed forces as well
as U.S. Government members. The seminar is the fundamental learning forum for this
course of instruction. Student expertise is a significant part of the learning process.
For a seminar to succeed there must be open and candid sharing of ideas and experiences,
tempered with decorum. Successful seminars—that is, seminars whose members leave
with the greatest knowledge—are those made up of members who come to each lesson
“loaded” with questions based on thorough preparation. Most students leave the seminar
with new insights, or even more thought-provoking questions. Student preparation,
free and open discussion, and the open-minded consideration of other students’ ideas,
all contribute to a valuable seminar experience. The “one-third” rule is the keystone
of the seminar approach. The first third is a well-constructed, relevant curriculum.
The second third is a quality JMO faculty member to present the material and guide
the discussion, and the most important third is the participation of the individual
students. Only by thoroughly preparing for seminar lessons can students become that
active catalyst that generates “positive and engaging” seminar interaction.
All students are required to write a research paper that critically examines an
aspect of the course material. The Operations Research Paper presents an opportunity
to study a theater-strategic or operational level issue, conduct research, perform
analysis, and prepare a paper that advances the literature and demonstrates critical
reasoning skills It requires independent thought and graduate-level writing. Papers
often serve to stimulate innovative thinking and to provide valuable information
to service and joint staffs.
The final event in the JMO curriculum is a CAPSTONE Planning Exercise. The purpose
of the exercise is to synthesize and reinforce course material through practical
application in a realistic staff environment. Students will leverage an existing
Concept Plan using the crisis action planning process. This is an educational planning
exercise that provides an opportunity to apply the principles and concepts studied
throughout the trimester.
RESIDENT COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Joint Military Operations
College of Naval Warfare
Naval Command College
13 weeks
The Joint Military Operations Senior Level (SLC) Joint Professional Military Education
(JPME) Phase II curriculum is designed to prepare future military and civilian leaders
for high-level policy, command, and staff responsibilities requiring joint and service
operational expertise and warfighting skills. Accordingly, students are educated
in the diplomatic, informational, military, and economic dimensions of the strategic
security environment and the effect of those dimensions on strategy formulation,
implementation, and campaigning. The goal of the Phase II program at the Naval War
College is to build on the foundation established by the institutions teaching Joint
Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase I. In addition, the faculty and student
interaction in the joint environment of the Phase II classroom fosters professional
joint attitudes and perspectives essential to successful military operations.
JPME phase II outcomes include students who are strategically minded, critically
thinking leaders who are skilled in maritime and joint warfighting. Upon completion
of the JMO Phase II course, students will be:
- Skilled in formulating an executing strategy and U.S. policy through the integrated
employment of military and non-military instruments of national power
- Skilled in joint warfighting, theater strategy and campaign planning through the
application of operational art to the joint warfighting and Navy and joint planning
processes
- Capable of strategically minded critical thinking across the full spectrum of national
security environments
- Skilled in aligning and maximizing capabilities across components, services, agencies,
and international forces
- Capable of excelling in positions of strategic leadership in peace, crisis and
war.
Joint Maritime Operations
College of Naval Command and Staff
Naval Staff College
17 weeks
The Joint Maritime Operations Intermediate Level Course (ILC), Navy Professional
Military Education (PME) with Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) Phase
I curriculum, is designed to prepare mid-career U.S. and international military
officers and civilians to (1) effectively apply the Joint/Navy Planning Process
to meet national security challenges, (2) creatively apply Operational Art in maritime,
joint, interagency, and multinational environments, (3) exercise critical thought,
particularly as it pertains to operational level decision-making and leadership,
(4) efficiently conduct staff officer duties on major operational staffs and (5)
understand the maritime dimensions of operational warfare. Once grounded in operational
art, JMO students learn to balance the ways, means, ends, and risks to achieve national,
theater-strategic, and operational objectives, as well as develop operational designs
using service and joint doctrine.
JPME Phase I outcomes include students who are critically thinking planners and
leaders with a maritime, operational level perspective. Upon completion of the JMO
Phase I course, students will be:
- Skilled in applying operational art to maritime, joint and multinational warfighting
environments
- Skilled in applying Sea Power to achieve strategic effects across the range of
military operations
- Skilled in the applying the joint and Navy planning processes in contingency and
crisis action scenarios
- Capable of critical thought with operational perspectives
- Prepared for operational level leadership challenges by fostering collaborative
relations, building teams and trust
- Effective maritime spokespersons well versed in the maritime dimensions of warfare.
Joint Military Operations
Naval Staff College
4 weeks
Preparation of mid-grade international officers for positions of responsibility
within their respective national defense organizations. The main goal of the course
is to prepare students to (1) effectively apply the Joint/Navy Planning Process
to meet national security challenges, (2) creatively apply Operational Art in maritime,
joint, interagency, and multinational environments, and (3) exercise critical thought,
particularly as it pertains to operational level decision making and leadership.
Reserve Officer Joint Military Operations
Reserve Officers
2 weeks
Joint Military Operations Course for Reserve Officers is an intensive two week program
intended to improve the students’ ability to plan the employment of U.S. military
forces in joint and combined operational environments ranging from peacetime presence
to conventional war. To this end, students study the process of military operational
decision-making and the concepts that must be considered when making those decisions.
The course involves extensive reading assignments, seminar discussions and a practical
planning exercise to achieve learning objectives.
GUIDES
Commander's Estimate of the Situation
Operations Paper: Guidance For Students
(PDF)
Writing & Style Guide 2007
(PDF)
CONTACT INFORMATION
|
Executive Secretary
|
401-841-3414
|
|
Faculty Administrator
|
401-841-2596
|
|
Office fax (UNCLASS)
|
401-841-6917
|
|
DSN
|
948
|
|
E-mail
|
jmo@nwc.navy.mil
|
|